Morning, April 12
Go To Evening Reading
“My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
Psalm 22:14
Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul.
“The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit
who can bear?” Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all
besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to his
God, “Be not far from me,” for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is
melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross
this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been
brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any
one among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest,
who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let
those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of
a present sense of our Father’s love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us
not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has
passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst
even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord’s countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet
fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow
may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought
our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the
sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my
sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float
it right up to my Lord’s feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his
love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to
him that if he will put his ear to me, he will hear within my heart
faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought
me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever.